good-bye Mailblocks!

This purple guy was walking around yesterday when
Craig and I were having coffee recovering from Real Life.


I recently grew suspicious that some e-mails weren't getting through to my Mailblocks.com account, so sent myself test e-mails from various other addresses. Not only did none get through, but I also never got a bounce or error message indicating anything was amiss. Upon sending a query to their customer service, I received the following response:

---

Hello there,

Thank you for your questions regarding SR-my mailblocks address does not seem to be receiving mail.

We have identified the issue and are in the process of adding additional new email servers. This should help resolve the issue you are experiencing .These issues will be resolved soon, so please try logging in again in a little while. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

We appreciate your patience and understanding during this temporary issue.

Thank you for using Mailblocks. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

---

I did log on the next day and find some e-mail, but had no idea if any was missing.

The main problem with the message from Mailblocks is that they didn't get to the heart of my main concern: How long had I NOT been receiving e-mail? What does "these issues will be solved soon" mean, exactly? What happened to the missing e-mail? Will I ever receive it? And most importantly, why did the company not tell me what was going on until I asked? Would they have let me know what happened, that I might have lost e-mail? Or would they have just said nothing, hoping I wouldn't notice?

I wrote again to ask these questions as well as to express my concern about the lack of communication and information. I also told them that I was not planning on renewing my account.

Their response:

---

"Hello Debbie,
Thank you for your questions regarding Re: SR-my Mailblocks address does not seem to be receiving mail [#38871]. We appreciate your feedback and suggestions. I've taken note and will pass your feedback on to our product engineering team.

Thank you for using Mailblocks. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know."

---

That was several days ago; haven't heard from them since.

Good customer service doesn't mean you have to be perfect, but it does mean good communication.

Mailblocks.com has recently been undergoing some problems, possibly as a result of their acquisition by AOL, but I would have thought that this would make it all that more important to keep their customers up-to-date with what was going on. If I were them, I would have given more detailed information right away, promise they would do what they could to not let it happen again, perhaps even offer a discount on my next renewal fee. Anything would have been more helpful than "Thanks, I'll pass on the message."

Who knows how many other customers have lost e-mail and don't know?

I've decided to switch to Gmail for my public e-mail. So far it seems to be doing a great job filtering spam, and I don't give out my personal address anymore. And it's FREE.

And good-bye Mailblocks.com!

September 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments